As the news continues to do their very ill thought out reporting on
Jared Lee Loughner, who
shot Representative Gabrielle Giffords, I will bring you my initial findings on this killer. In addition to Giffords, Loughner also injured many other people, killing 5 or more, including a 9-year-old girl and a federal judge.
Jackie Storrer, right, tries her best to figure out the clues on a giant crossword as Jared Loughner, a volunteer, stands in the background during the Tucson Festival of Books. Sunday March 14, 2010 (Arizona Daily Star)
Reviewing his YouTube page and downloading the videos I can tell you a few things that the news is ignorant of right off the bat. They are claiming that Loughner was poor at grammar and that he was simply ranting. Watching all of his videos through shows that his grammar was poor intentionally. Loughner was obviously anti-authority in all forms. He saw grammar, currency and even the date system as a way of controlling the populace and public at large.
From a Jared Lee Loughner YouTube Video
Loughner tries to claim that you can create your own system. He hints that the old system needs to be eliminated though. While he references the US Constitution on occasion, which would lead some to believe he is a pro-constitutional individual, he was actually stating that a second constitution needs to be created and the old one done away with. Just as with his calls to create your own grammar, language and numbering system, he felt that you also needed to create your own government.
From a Jared Lee Loughner YouTube Video
From a Jared Lee Loughner YouTube Video
His video titles on YouTube were telling:
Introduction: Jared Loughner
How To: Mind Controller
How To: Your New Currency!
In Loughner's opinion he was trying to make "how to videos" on his own belief system.
From a Jared Lee Loughner YouTube Video
From a Jared Lee Loughner YouTube Video
On his YouTube page are listed a number of books. These are already being jumped on by the media as proof of his stances politically. Quoted below is how it is all listed on his YouTube page - which the profile portion was last updated on October, 25 2010 (two and a half months before the shooting). You will note that his references are all written in the past tense.
Interests:
My favorite interest was reading, and I studied grammar. Conscience dreams were a great study in college!
Movies:
(*My idiom: I could coin the moment!*)
Music:
Pass me the strings!
Books:
I had favorite books: Animal Farm, Brave New World, The Wizard Of OZ, Aesop Fables, The Odyssey, Alice Adventures Into Wonderland, Fahrenheit 451, Peter Pan, To Kill A Mockingbird, We The Living, Phantom Toll Booth, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Pulp,Through The Looking Glass, The Communist Manifesto, Siddhartha, The Old Man And The Sea, Gulliver's Travels, Mein Kampf, The Republic, and Meno.
As I noted they are all listed in the past tense. This can be looked at logically in several different ways.
The first is that by the time of his updating this profile on October 25, 2010, he had already come to the conclusion that he was either going to commit suicide or an act of terror. He left the past tense as a message to those who found it after his demise.
The second way of looking at it is that he was taking into account his own new philosophy that grammar and tenses regarding dates and times were moot and therefore "had" is just as good as "have".
The third is that these were books he used to like, but had now thrown out of his favorites or his belief systems.
Looking into his videos and other things I have found I tend to come to the conclusion on the third point, with a little of the first and second thrown in. He had thrown away proper grammar. In addition I believe he had already come to the conclusion that he was on a path to destroying himself and others. He seems to have been searching for a belief system, both politically and morally. These were the books he discarded as holding the secret: Mein Kampf, the Communist Manifesto and Ayn Rand's Individualism (Objectivism).
The news of course is reporting this as books he liked and followed, but they are missing the things he addressed in his video.
The news, particularly Fox, has been reporting on his one mention of the Bible he was given in the military and his statements on silver and gold backed currency. These statements were in the context of him believing the government was using them to control people - and that he rejected that belief system. He does not go on an anti-Christian rant or go in-depth into currency systems, other than stating they need to be discarded and a new system put in place. Loughner was anti-everything - and seemingly equally.
Something I'm sure will also be said about his comments regarding Pima Community College and the lack of literacy at the college as some sort of racist comment. Loughner does not make any racial comments. He seemed to be equally disgusted at those who accepted proper grammar as a mind-control system of the government and those who reject his more creative system of making up your own. He didn't make any statements on immigration, health care or political parties.
To put it bluntly, Jared Lee Loughner, was a troubled and disturbed man. He obviously came to the conclusion that he could not find or fit into society in any way and was throwing it all away as pointless. I would classify him as an anarchist. No one was going to accept his notions and he decided that shooting people was his only choice. He even references in the videos that you may call him a terrorist - and in his twisted belief system and his own created "math" - that you would be wrong.
From a Jared Lee Loughner YouTube Video
He mentions "conscience dreaming" and controlling your own mind through your own "mind control". These sound more of the likes of an LSD trip than a real belief system of any kind or any kind of rational thought.
I don't feel wrong in calling him a terrorist and I in no way condone any of his belief system, I am simply explaining it from my point of view as the lazy media would rather not actually try to understand a damn thing in this day and age.
Other things on his YouTube page regarding his life:
Hometown:
Tucson
Country:
United States
Schools:
I attended school: Thornydale elementary,Tortolita Middle School, Mountain View Highschool, Northwest Aztec Middle College, and Pima Community College.
Update
In addition to my above thoughts I would like to include that I think he was entirely sane. He was going on his twisted belief system. I also believe that Gabrielle Giffords was just a target of opportunity in his attempt to fight the system. It could have just as easily have been Jan Brewer, Barack Obama or any other person within the government.
Update
It has been reported now that while Loughner claims he went in the military, the Army says they rejected him when he tried to enlist.
